LogFAQs > #959809109

adjl posted...

Literally all of history is theoretical. History is comprised of interpretations of evidence, including subjective accounts of events that have already been passed through multiple interpretive lenses before reaching modern historians, who then also subjectively interpret which accounts are the most credible and ultimately arrive at a theory that most (local) historians can agree on. It's an account of factual events, yes, but so is the Big Bang Theory (the science, not the sitcom).

The entire concept of theories exists to make sense of facts that cannot be directly measured, and that very handily describes history. Anyone that tries to insist that history is strictly factual is just trying to avoid having to re-evaluate their understanding of it in response to new information.

Yeah, even very casual fans of history know this. As far as fields of study go, history is one of the most nebulous, which is why it's important to look at any given topic through multiple frameworks so you don't miss something important, to try and prevent too many biases from affecting your conclusions or omitting important factors (for example, again, the racially neutral language of the grandfather clauses might cause a modern person to look at them and fail to realize that this was a law targeting black people).

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Hi